Mac OS X Switcher Stories

spid writes "Tim O'Reilly posted an interesting article about people switching from other OSes (Mac OS, Windows, Linux) to Mac OS X. The resounding consensus is that most folks appreciate how, compared to these other OSes, Mac OS X 'just works.' O'Reilly also makes an interesting point that UNIX/Linux users, rather than Windows users, would be the best target niche for Apple's 'switch' campaign."

Comments

Mac OS X ain't all that

[Meleneth]

It's nice and all, but not that great. Definatly a step waaaay up from Mac OS 9, and much smoother than windows.

I have a TiBook 667 with a Rage128 card, and it's pretty fast. I'd use it all the time except under my fink install both enlightenment and windowmaker crash at startup. Also it's interoperability with linux blows - it cannot mount any kind of ext2 filesystem, and hfs+ is not supported by linux yet. Sure, I could use hfstools and copy stuff off the HD... (I think) but I want it to just mount. I'm also kindof bugged by having to set my NFS servers up for insecure mode. Not really because I have to change the settings on my boxes, as much as getting the settings changed on other machines.

So, I've installed gentoo on it instead. I'm usually a debian fanatic, but I thought I'd check it out, since I'd already messed up my debian install by totally hosing my kernel when I compiled it myself. First kernel build on the new machine, totally going to break. We don't need to steenking backups ;)

So anyways, gentoo has given me all the linux goodness I need. I won't say it was easy to set up - X11 didn't get my keyboard type at all, and I actually had to resort to hand hacking a ~/.Xmodmap file in order to use my keyboard in Xwindows. It's mostly usable now, only a few more symbols and all the keys will actually be typeable.

On top of that, I can actually play divx files. Divx support for mac os X is bad - the few files that actually play the sound skips horribly. And ogg vorbis support sucks too (i.e. imusic doesn't support it)

I love my linux boxen. *sniff*

Meleneth

O'Reilley doesn't care

[SpanishInquisition]

Whatever platform you switch to, they are going to sell you a shitload of books anyway, in fact they want you to switch as often as possible so you end up owning all the books they publish and end up bankrupt.

Jobs' biggest mistake.

[FreeLinux]

Steve Jobs is making the biggest mistake he has yet. Apple sales would explode if Jobs ported OS X to the Intel platform.

Granted, it may indeed threaten Mac hardware sales but, he could test the waters with less optimized Intel version. That way you could get a great OS on Intel but, if you wanted to see *really* fast, you should buy the Mac.

I'm certain that OS X on Intel would fly off the shelves faster than Apple could stamp out the CDs and Microsoft would crap all over themselves. Everybody wins.

The one thing Linux can do that OS X can't yet...

[Junior J. Junior III]

is run on any kind of hardware you care to name. If Apple would port OS X to x86 hardware, you'd see a hell of a lot more people switching.